EucXylo congratulates 2020 Wallenberg prize winners

The EucXylo team extends their hearty congratulations to Dr Joe Landsberg, Dr Dick Waring and Dr Nicholas Coops who shared the coveted Wallenberg prize for 2020.

These three scientists have been behind the creation and significant further development of the 3PG (Physiological Processes Predicting Growth) model.

I don’t think it would be overstating it to say that 3PG has been a catalyst for recent revolutionary developments in the field of forest modelling. As the MWP website puts it, 3PG is “A simple model for difficult calculations”.  And it works!  This is what makes it so powerful and so attractive.  It is also flexible, and available, which means researchers can tinker with it, adapting it and adjusting it to suit their own peculiar requirements.

It is a tool we are exploring in our EucXylo research.  Student O. Gakenou is testing it for South Africa’s Eucalyptus grandis x urophylla resource.  Student T. Mfuni is using it as a platform for assessing productivity and risk in eucalypt plantations of the future. We are also incorporating it as a simple and flexible “engine” for key physiological processes at the stand or tree level, to feed into xylogenesis models.

It is certain to have an important role in driving, informing and stimulating our modelling endeavours as a group.